Your Right to Know

For more than two months, during important negotiations about the Rt. 36/I-71 corridor and other
projects, Delaware County’s economic-development director was on leave for stress. Then, a few
weeks ago, his desk was cleared of personal effects.

And yesterday, when he was to return to work after his absence, the county announced that it no
longer employs Gus Comstock.

County Administrator Tim Hansley told Comstock that after five years at the post, his services
no longer were needed. No explanation was given.

Comstock said he’s not sure what happened.

But in a July 23 letter to Gary Merrell, president of the county board of commissioners,
Comstock is contrite, calling a comment he was accused of making to an attorney for the
Simon-Tanger outlet mall “embarrassing.”

“I offer my sincerest apologies for the miscommunication and misstatements that led you to feel
that I should leave” the job.

Comstock did not elaborate on what was said to offend Steve Cuckler, an attorney for the outlet
project.

In the letter to Merrell, Comstock calls the outlet project “very complicated with a lot of
expectations, unconventional developer project management, promises and commitments.”

Comstock has held the post, which paid him almost $95,000 annually, since 2009.

This year, he was being investigated by the Ohio Ethics Commission for accepting a series of
free tickets from a developer of the proposed NorthGate Centre project near the Rt. 36/I-71
interchange; the project initially was conceived as a outlet-mall rival to the Simon-Tanger
project.

Comstock believed the case was closed. In his letter to Merrell, Comstock said the commission
told him in January that “no further action was expected if the (ethics) commission did not
consider the complaint during their February 2014 meeting.”

But in March, Comstock learned that the county commissioners were considering hiring a law firm
for about $100,000 to review the complaint.

And Hansley repeatedly asked Comstock to resign rather than be fired.

Comstock refused.

The ethics commission’s rules prohibit public employees from accepting items of value from those
they engage in business with, other than promotional items such as coffee mugs or T-shirts. The
commission would not comment on Comstock’s case.

Comstock said he’s discussing future action with a lawyer but realizes that he was an “at-will”
employee and could be fired for no reason.

In a 2010 job-performance review, two then-commissioners gave Comstock marks of “meets or
exceeds expectations,” but current Commissioner Ken O’Brien gave him the lowest “needs improvement”
in nine of 10 categories.

Before taking the county job, Comstock was economic-development director for the city of
Delaware for nine years.

Mark Corroto, city prosecutor, said Comstock was admired.

“They loved Gus; they thought he was fantastic,” Corroto said. “He was a straight shooter.”

Delaware County officials, including Merrell and O’Brien, declined to comment.